


Bound And Broken

by IllusiveWritings



Category: Castle
Genre: BDSM, Bondage, Bondage and Discipline, F/M, Punishment, Safe Sane and Consensual, Safewords, Verbal Humiliation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-18
Updated: 2015-12-18
Packaged: 2018-05-07 10:14:08
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,929
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5452949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IllusiveWritings/pseuds/IllusiveWritings
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Post 8x08. Naked punishment he promised, naked punishment she received<br/>Written for the Winter Hiatus Pornfest, non-prompt based story.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Bound And Broken

**Author's Note:**

> K, I kinda took the whole "naked punishment" thing a little too literally. Contains BDSM themes, abundant BDSM themes and action and sex. Just forget 50 Shades of Lack Of Knowledge On BDSM and add something a little more real. Because I did my homework. So... have fun. Post 8x08 EP, takes place right after the episode ends, and take the naked punishment to the letter. Enjoy!

He led her to their bedroom, gentle and quiet, a happy smile brightening up his face after months of sadness and confusion. But the moment he shut the door of his study and turned towards her, his whole demeanor changed drastically.

She was expecting it, but it startled her, nevertheless.

She swallowed the lump forming in her throat and waited.

Castle closed the door of their bedroom too, turned the key for good measure then spun on his heels and faced her, back against the door, still silent. Beckett didn't even want to know what kind of perverted thoughts were passing through his mind, most of all because she was sure he was going to act all those fantasies that night. On her.

It wasn't strange, Castle had revealed his interest in more  _radical_  sexual activities quite early when their relationship had become more intimate and had been most happy when he had discovered that such interest was mutual, though from a different point of view. But it was the first time she actually felt like she  _deserved_  punishment and it wasn't only a way to dispel some accumulated stress or frustration.

She deserved it. The way she had acted, forgoing thinking rationally but only relying on her flipped fight or flight instinct had caused so much emotional pain to him that it was only right, from her point of view, that he exorcised that pain on her in a more physical way.

He took a step towards her, rubbed his hands together and then ran them over his face. "Are you sure?"

She gave him a minute nod. "Yes Castle, I'm sure."

"It can wait," he explained. "I can wait. If you're tired or just… not in the mood we can…"

Kate walked closer to him and ran her fingertips on the smooth cotton of his shirt over a non-existent crease, just above his heart. "Rick… whether we do it tonight, tomorrow, next week or next month, it's going to hurt." He nodded. "And you know I hate the wait."

He took a deep breath and closed his eyes for a moment. "Alright. You can always back out if you want to. What's your safeword?"

"Cherries," she stated, trying to sound more resolute than she actually was. She trusted Castle with every fiber of her being, but a little bit of uncertainty was always there. He was an expert, but even the most navigated dom could slip sometimes, make a mistake that could turn a scene into an horrible experience for both the sub and the dom. It had never happened, but you never know.

"Good." He leaned down and kissed her lips, soft and sweet."Now, strip and sit down on the bed," he ordered. "Don't speak, unless I ask you to."

Beckett moved back from him and complied. She felt an odd feeling of awkwardness as she removed her clothing while he scrutinized every move she made with his arms folded across his chest, but that happened every time they started a scene. There was something in him that made her feel much more hesitant, no one else had ever made her feel that way. It was one of the many reasons she loved to submit to him; he made her feel both protected and threatened at the same time, from the very beginning.

As soon as she had removed her underwear and had carefully folded her clothes, she quietly sat on the corner of the bed, waiting for instructions.

She dared to take a look at him, found him still with his arms crossed, looking down at her direction but not really seeing her, lost in his thoughts.

Was he devising some wicked punishment she had never endured? Or was he just taking his time to torture her more without even touching her? It wouldn't be the first time.

Instead, he just walked past her to the bedside table, from which he pulled out a long black silk scarf and gently tied it over her eyes. Not even light passed through the folded, smooth cloth.

"Is it too tight?" he asked. Beckett shook her head. "Good. I'm not asking you if you can see something, I know you can't."

It was true. They had chosen that particular scarf among those she possessed because the weave was so thick it wouldn't let a single drop of light pass through. She couldn't see anything but utter, complete darkness. There was even a chance, though remote in her experience, that he'd add earplugs to the scene, to achieve a more complete level of sensory deprivation, but she had the feeling Castle was going to be pretty vocal that night, and that he wanted her to hear every single word he spoke.

She was almost scared by the prospective.

After that, she heard him tinker around her. He opened the door of their closet, shuffled through its contents and then she heard the noise of a heavy cardboard box being dragged on the floor.

She could almost envision his movements, even though she couldn't see him. He took great care in what he was doing, being meticulous and thoughtful as he rummaged inside one of their many kinky boxes. She wondered which one he was examining.

That feeling of uneasiness she had been trying to suppress since Castle had closed the door behind him crept up from the small of her back, engulfing her like a cold shroud. The waiting always made her feel like that, awkward and unsafe.

Her silent monologue was interrupted by a sudden clinking noise from Castle's position. He was pulling something out of the box, something heavy. Despite curiosity, she remained quiet, refrained herself from asking him what was he working on and obeyed his orders.

The clinking, metallic noise continued as he worked with whatever he had chosen from the array of toys safely tucked in their respective boxes, until she heard four loud clicks of something sturdy slipping into its allotted fitting. Then came the sound of nylon cord being pulled through metal buckles and the soft yet distinguishable noise of snap hooks opening and closing.

The portable Saint Andrew's Cross.

She shivered at the thought. Castle had that particular piece of  _furniture_  designed and fitted to be hung to five special hinges installed on the wall in front of their bed, alla carefully hidden by framed pictures and such. They hadn't used it too often, Castle always referred to it as a special treat, but Beckett knew that if he had picked that particular piece of equipment, he was damn pissed off.

When he had spoken of  _naked punishment -_  he meant punishing indeed.

Oh well, she could safeword out at any time, if she felt the need to.

She heard him rummage some more, probably picking more toys out of more boxes, then felt his hands, warm and slightly calloused, over her shoulders. The sudden warmth against her skin made her jolt. "Still with me?" he asked. He had knelt in front of her so they would be face to face, even though she couldn't see him, she felt his presence.

"Yes…" she murmured, not sure if answering would count as disobedience.

"You are allowed to speak when I ask questions Kate. You're also allowed to scream, yell and moan if you feel the need to, just don't talk. Unless you want to safeword out. Now answer me, are you still with me?"

"Yes, Castle."

"Good girl… Now, a couple of ground rules for tonight. You may have guessed that while I'm am incredibly happy and relieved to have you back home, I'm angry as fuck for what you've done to me, to us. And I'm going to punish you for that. I assure you my anger won't have the best of me and that if you ask me to stop, I'm going to stop at any time you deem necessary. Yet I'm going to ask you if I have your permission for this scene."

She nodded. "Yes, you have."

"As I said, you're allowed to make some noise, just nothing intelligible unless I'm asking, or ordering, that you say something. I will periodically check your well-being, if you fail to answer me coherently in a certain amount of time I'm going to drop the scene right there and then. Do you agree?"

"Yes."

"Good. If need arises, either you're cold, thirsty, need to go to the bathroom… anything, just safeword out if you want to stop altogether, if not you can use the traffic light system, alright?"

"Traffic light system, understood." It was a fairly common system to check and communicate the sub's, or dom's if need arose, well-being. They had incorporated it in their scenes because it was easier to remember than a series of different safewords for different grades of discomfort.

"Perfect," he whispered, running his fingers over her neck as he gathered her long hair and tied it neatly in a loose ponytail. "Is there anything you want to ask before we start? Any limits you don't want to surpass tonight?"

"I'm still kind of sore around the gunshot wound, from time to time. I'd be extremely grateful if you wouldn't hit me around the area, if you're going for impact play."

She could almost feel him nodding in front of her. "Of course Kate, I'd never intentionally hit so close to a still-healing wound. Now, I'm going to fetch some water, give me just a moment." He placed a soft kiss on her forehead then disappeared.

The short but extensive talk about rules had a sort of calming effect on her, made her slip in the zone in a coherent and quiet way. They had both entered their roles in a swift and seemingly easy step that had rarely happened with other partners. Not that many of her partners were open to practices such as this.

She felt calmer, safer, a tad colder but that would soon change, but the waiting was killing her. Castle knew she was a bit impatient when it came to sex and often played with her yearning in order to achieve more control on her. The whole leaving her naked and blindfolded while he set up the cross, the talk about limits and rules and the fetching of water were just part of his technique to get under her skin quicker and more efficiently.

It was already working.

Castle returned a while later, shut the door and again turned the key to keep out improbable, yet possible, guests. "Alright, I've turned on the heating a little more so you won't be cold," he explained, then he gently took her hand and pulled until she was standing. He lead her to the wall and guided her hands to each top end of the cross. She closed her fingers over the short chain that connected the leather cuffs he carefully buckled around her wrists.

He slipped a finger between her wrist and the cuffs to check if she had enough room to allow a good blood flow then skimmed his hands down her arms, her torso and then her sides, where he rested his palms over her hips.

"Scoot back a little bit please," he ordered, pulling back her butt until her back was arched and her arms were completely distended. "There you go, perfect."

His hands continued their journey down her legs to her ankles. At that point he pulled again until she spread her legs to the desired point. "Almost there." Again, he buckled the cuffs around her ankles, but he wasn't going to suspend her to the structure as it was designed to do, how he usually did.

Beckett heard a low chuckle from behind. "I'm not going to strain your wound tonight," he said, as if he had read her mind. She heard him fumbling about with something and then heard two other snap hooks spring. "Just the spreader bar, don't worry." Again, he checked if there was room enough for blood to flow. "You think you can hold this position?"

She did a quick check up on herself and found that such position, though uncommon, wasn't too uncomfortable. Restraining, yes, but she was comfortable enough. "Yes, I think I can."

"Good. I'm going to ask you again then; are you alright with this? Do you want to stop?"

"Do I have permission to speak freely?"

"Of course."

She cleared her throat. "As I said before, the more we wait, the worse things will get. You know I hate waiting, I know I deserve this and even more. It's your own right to do this and believe it or not, I need it as much as you do. Therefore, yes, I am alright and I don't want to stop. Not now at least." She couldn't know if, as things progressed, she would change her mind, but in that moment she felt good. "I must make it up to you."

All she wanted was to please him, let him blow off some of the steam that had collected ever since the LokSat thing had blown like a bomb, creating havoc in their lives. It wasn't nearly enough for her to consider herself absolved, but it was a first step. Castle was the most forgiving man in the world, he had excused her obsessions and flaws so many times since they had met that she had lost count, but, on the contrary, she wasn't so easy on herself.

Ashamed didn't even start to describe how she felt about she had done and thought to do in the past two months.

He placed a warm open mouthed kiss over her bare shoulder. She could almost feel him smile against her skin, as he bit her. Not enough to hurt her, just a playful nibble, barely enough to feel the prickle of his teeth on her skin. He was so close she could feel the heat radiating from his body through his clothes, even if he wasn't touching her. "If you say so…"

He abruptly stepped back disappeared from her radius. She could hear him, but his steps were muffled by the soft carpet. He seemed to be deliberately moving as slow as he could not to give her any indication of what he was going to do.

That's why, the moment he first stroke his open hand over her buttock she startled like a loaded spring. It didn't hurt, not at all, it was more a light slap intended to test her alertness than something meant to inflict pain, and yet she jumped as much as the restraints allowed her to.

"Now now," he chided. "Don't jump like that, I'm not even started."

Beckett usually didn't react that way, her pain tolerance threshold was pretty high and a slap like that didn't make her wince that way. She started wondering if Castle's worries were founded. If she reacted like that at the beginning, she doubted she could stand there for too long.

She shivered when he swiped his hand across her back and moved her hair away, exposing her body to his eyes. She couldn't see him, but she could guess the look on his face. His bright, baby blue eyes darkened with lust and concentration as his mind mulled over his next move. With time, Beckett had come to love and fear that darker shade that took over him when it was  _play_ time.

"You know…" he started, his voice reduced to a whisper. "Since you left, that night, I thought about what I would do, the moment you came back."

Behind the silk scarf, she screwed her eyes shut.  _Here it comes…_

"I think I devised at least ten different plans for tonight. One of them was executed the other day, on our belated anniversary. Bet you liked that, uh?"

"Of course I did…" she replied.

"Yeah, I could tell. You nearly passed out after the third round. It's been a while since I managed to wear you out like that."

True enough. It had taken all her remaining strength to get up from their bed and go back to the precinct where she had set up camp.

"I was so sure you would come home and that you would have allowed me to punish you, that I bought some new toys. I have them all here, wanna try them?"

She took a deep breath before she answered. "Yes."

The noise came before the pain. A loud snap of leather against skin and the sudden sting over her upper back of countless hard leather tails of a flogger. A very stiff one. And it hurt.

She let out a low-pitched whine. "I think this is my favorite one," he murmured, before he swung it again and hit her again, in the opposite direction, but careful not to let it wrap around her chest and touch the graze on her side.

Things were escalating quickly.

"Like it?"

She nodded. "Yes."

"Good." He stroke again, harder. Beckett was sure that by the end of the night she'd have some mean bruises and welts all over. "I had the feeling you would have liked it, the moment I saw it. It's handmade, you know? Stiff, but not overly so. I like the old one too but I think we worn it out. This one's better, in my opinion. Anyway…" He paused his speech just enough to hit her again. And again. He paused only when she couldn't hold back a moan.

"Anyway, when I was thinking about what I would have done in case you agreed it was time for some naked punishment, I had this fleeting idea of doing absolutely nothing."

_What?_

"Just set up things and leave you there. You hate the wait; you hate not knowing that will come next… and that's what happened. That's what you did, you know, when you left that night."

A shiver coursed down her spine, following the roughened pad for his finger as it traced a long line down her back.

"You left me there, wondering, not knowing why the fuck my wife had just packed her things and had left. After being shot." He took a step closer, enough for her to feel his breath on her skin. "Do you know how it feels to be left out? Again?"

She desperately searched for words to answer, but couldn't find any that could describe what she wanted to say. "No."

"Because I never left you out." It wasn't true, and he quickly realized his mistake. "Not like this. I never walked out on you. I never gave up."

"Neither did I…"

Three quick and hard strikes of the flogger hit her across her back and butt. Her skin stung from the sudden, hard impact of the stiff leather and she cried out both in pain and surprise. "I didn't give you permission to speak Kate." His voice felt hard as steel, each word he spoke felt like a spike going through her heart. He was right, she hated the sense of helplessness of not knowing what was coming next, and there she was, tied and blindfolded so she couldn't see what her own husband wanted to do to her.

And damn her, she was so aroused she would soon start begging him to touch her, in any way, just to feel some sort of physical relief. Castle was a skilled dom, didn't lack in imagination and despite all the pain, be it physical or psychological, he could inflict on her during their scenes, he always managed to reduce to a quivering pile of wet flesh in dire need of an orgasm.

"Are you going to keep quiet?"

Beckett bit her lip, torn by the idea to simply call her safeword and end the torture, but the need to seek atonement for her mistakes was greater. "Yes," she whispered, still reeling from the pain that lingered over her back.

"Are we still green?" he asked again, but in a softer voice. He was checking on her.

"Yes," she repeated, her voice steadier and louder.

He chuckled and ran the loose ends of the flogger over her back, as if to soothe her. The gentle sensation felt marvelous and she couldn't repress the satisfied groan that rose from her throat. "Always so eager to please…" He clicked his tongue and then remained silent for an unidentified amount of time. Beckett didn't know anymore where he was, if he stood right behind her or if he had walked away to carry on with his plan to leave her like that, literally hanging on from the nylon and steel structure. As if to push away the thought, she shrugged and shook her head, so her ponytail fell again over her shoulders and down her back.

Something fell on the bed, or better was thrown on the bed and landed over the duvet with a muffled thumping sound. Another object, heavier this time, joined the first one. As hypersensitive as she was, she heard Castle sigh and his bones pop as he stretched like a happy cat returning from a hunt. "You know… from here, you look like a poster girl for the company that built the Cross. Do you think they'd be happy to see their artisans' work is being used in such a satisfactory fashion?" She heard the click of his iPhone camera as he snapped a picture, and then another. "Oh, these are so much better than whatever I conjured in my head, as I lay here on  _our_ bed, alone."

And she could picture him, in that moment, sprawled on the bed as he enjoyed the view, much to her shame and chagrin.

"You realize that I'm not a monk, right?" he asked. "That I couldn't exactly keep my hand to myself. Not after you got me in the habit of at least an orgasm before bedtime, most nights."

The buckle of his belt clinked as he opened it, button and zipper soon following.

Kate swallowed a thick lump of arousal and humiliation that had formed in her throat. Was he really going to leave her there like that as he jerked off?

Wouldn't be the first time…

"You have no idea how much I missed that. The way you climb on the bed, your intentions written on your face like a neon sign. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with your demands, but hell you're so hot even a zombie would get a boner."

Wayward as it was, the compliment made her smile.

"I learned how to read that look soon you know…" he hissed a little bit. "It was the same look you had that night when you knocked on my door, drenched to the bone. And the same look you had tonight. Only this time it wasn't only lust, there was something more. Pain? Sadness?"

"Shame?" she proposed.

"I'm going to let the fact that you spoke pass without punishment because you're right. Shame, exactly. And it suited you. You looked so gloriously ashamed when you were apologizing, so contrite and eager for my forgiveness… couldn't really help it, you got me in the mood for some kinky stuff."

He stopped talking, his deep voice felt like a steel hammer covered in velvet as it banged over her head. It may have seemed smooth and soft, but in reality, it hurt.

"It doesn't help the fact that except for my right hand, porn and that meager bite I had the other night, sex was pretty much out of the question these two months. And I missed it."

_Me too…_

If he kept up that form of torture, she would crack sooner than later. He was poking and prodding all the right places that hurt more, that increased that feeling of shame that was soon going to overwhelm her, if he left her hanging there some more time.

Was he aiming at that? Cracking her up, forcing her to safeword out without even touching her, just with his words?

Because that was what she had done, she had hurt him without even touching him. Was he doing all of this, refraining from his own pleasure – because he loved to torture her, physically – just to mimic her own actions? To make her feel like he had felt when she had left?

She was fucked.

But she deserved this, so she gritted her teeth and steadied herself for the next assault, despite the tears welling up in her eyes, behind the blindfold.

"Did you miss it?" he asked.

"Sex? Yes. A lot."

"Is that why you came the other night? For sex?"

She shrugged as much as the now not so comfortable constricted position allowed. "For that and a million other reasons."

The duvet beneath him crackled as he slid up to stand. She heard the tails of the flogger swish over the cover as he grabbed it from where he had thrown it. "Name a few. If I don't deem them worthy enough, I'll flog you. Choose your reasons wisely, if you don't want me to hurt."

She chuckled. Castle had pushed her to a dark corner where she found herself craving to be touched, not caring what kind of touch it was that. Even the sharp sting of the leather flogger over her back would be a welcome feeling, after endless minutes of nothing but cool air over her body. The mere thought of being hit aroused her even more. Fucked up as it was, she reveled in that feeling.

"I missed you." He didn't hit her. "I wanted to see you." This time he did, hard, over her left shoulder.

"Come on Beckett, I was at the precinct all day."

She nodded and resumed the list of reasons she had come the night after their anniversary. "I was hungry but I was tired of eating alone. I didn't want to go back at the hideout to sleep there wrapped in a second-hand sleeping bag." Apparently he deemed those two reasons worthy enough, he didn't hit her. "That video of you at the divorce lawyer upset me."

The leather tails cracked loudly over her right buttock and she cried out in pain and, oddly, relief. "That was fake and you knew it. Go on."

"I wanted to piss off Vikram."

"What?" She could clearly hear the amusement in his voice, his tone less steely and more his normal self.

"He's a massive cockblock, even worse than Ryan. But unlike Ryan, he actually does it on purpose, I don't know why. Maybe for your safety, his own, mine… I have no idea. One of the reasons I came was to spite him."

Instead of hitting her with the flogger, he spanked her, not hard enough to hurt. More playful than meant to cause pain. "That's my wife," he murmured in her ear. "But go on, we're not over yet."

Biting the inside of her cheek she spoke. "I missed sex."

The flogger fell at his side with a thump, but Beckett barely noticed because Castle had grasped her hips and with a single, slow thrust he entered her. The sudden but welcome intrusion left her gasping and writhing for more.

"You missed this, admit it?" he murmured, his hands caressing her sides, up and down as if to sooth her. "Sex can be a mechanical act, loveless, sometimes boring. Orgasms can be achieved even alone, and I know you packed your favorite sex toys when you left. Admit it, you missed the intimacy, the way I make you feel, loved and safe."

She nodded and he slowly pulled back a little, then thrust forward again, at the same leisure pace.

"God, yes, yes I did."

"You missed making love, right?"

She nodded. "Yes…"

"Good girl. I love it when you're so sincere." One of his hand grasped her ponytail and harshly pulled until her neck was completely extended. "You should have been so sincere from the beginning," he seethed through clenched teeth as he started fucking her without remorse.

_Holy hell…_

The sudden assault startled her. "Fuck…" she whispered, before she could bite her tongue and keep quiet.

He stopped, frozen halfway out and another, drawn cry of mixed pain and pleasure was torn from the back of her throat.

"What did you say?"

Beckett let her head fall forward. "I said  _fuck_."

"I thought I had been clear enough when I ordered you to keep you mouth shut unless I asked you a question."

"Castle I…"

"Shut up!" he growled. "I gave you an order and you couldn't stick to one simple rule. You're not allowed to make any noise from now on, until I say so. Understand?" he nodded. "Good." His left hand wrapped around her neck. "This way I'll feel if you're trying to make a noise, even a whimper. If you do, I'll leave you here all night, unless you safeword out."

He was pouring all his anger over her, ruthlessly fucking her like she was nothing but a doll, something disposable, something that he didn't care of. He had taken his revenge, as she had admitted that she had come back not only because she had realized she had made the worst mistake of her life, but also because she missed him, she missed her husband not only as a partner, but also as a lover.

Now he was taking his revenge because of the dry spell she had caused.

He was brutal, not only because he was fucking in such a violent way he was hurting her, but also because he was possessively holding her body close to his as much as the cuffs allowed, and if they didn't budge, he had no qualms pulling her hard and making her arms and back strain. She was sure she'd wake up with some nasty bruises where he was holding and biting her, except for her neck. He wasn't choking her, his palm just rested above her throat to detect any incoming noise that she was fighting so hard to suppress.

She was a step away from safewording out, when the hand wrapped around her neck suddenly moved down her chest, groping her breasts and pinching her nipples so hard she gasped. He didn't seem to care, most of all when she screamed the moment his fingers ran down her abdomen and between her legs, and he started flicking her clit in time with his thrust."You wanted this, right?" he growled. "You wanted to be touched, you wanted the contact. Well, you got it. All you want."

They said too much of a good thing could kill you. Beckett was sure her heart was going to burst any moment now.

"You have ten seconds to come. If you don't, I swear to god you won't come for ten days straight. No matter how hard you try."

It felt like he had pulled a hidden trigger deep inside of her. Something broke, like the string of a guitar pulled too tight. Her orgasm started like a firework, it shot up out of nothing and burst in thousands sparks that made her swoon. Her knees buckled and only the restraints and Castle allowed her to stand, because she was sure she would have fallen on the floor in a crumpled pile of heated and exhausted flesh.

Castle had broken her. But he wasn't satisfied. Behind her, she heard him growl and snarl like a guard dog. He didn't let go, he kept pistoning into her with bruising force, searching his own release. He hadn't slowed down a moment, working her through her orgasm to the point it hurt.

That was his final punishment for her. Working her up to the point she would desperately crave for him to brutally possess her and then satisfy her while he hurt her.

She could only try to guess how pleased he was with himself.

He suddenly halted then thrusted really hard, so much she wailed in pain, then stilled and let out a choked cry as he bit her shoulder to muffle the sound. The hand between her legs groped even harder in reflex, crushing her hypersensitive clit between his fingertips and the pubic bone.

It was too much. She couldn't take it anymore.

"Cherries!" she screamed, voice hoarse like gravel.

It was the first time she ever had to safeword out of a scene. The first time he had managed to break her for real, to take her to her limits and make her give in.

After that, she felt like her head was wrapped in cotton wool, or like being underwater. The world moved languidly around her, all she could feel were his slow movements, light touches and sweet words as Castle quickly unbuckled the restraints and took off the blindfold. The room was dark, only the dim light of the city outside filtered through the partially closed window, so it didn't hurt her eyes when she opened them.

He picked her up, murmuring how brave she had been and how proud he was of her in her ear as he brought her to their bed. He tucked safely beneath the thick cover to shield her from the chill of the room, pulling the duvet up to her chin as she snuggled down into the pillow and turned on her side to face him.

"Hey there, you doing alright?" he asked, softly, as he moved her hair away from her face to wipe the tears that were streaming down her face. She often cried after a scene, so he wasn't worried.

Beckett looked up and saw him smile, his eyes had lost that steely shadow that made her be a little afraid of him before the scene begun. "Tired…" she spoke.

"I know. I'm sorry I pushed so hard, I shouldn't have done that." He looked sincerely regretful about forcing her to use her safeword. "You need anything? Water, tea maybe? Something to eat?"

She shook her head and grabbed his hand. "You."

He leaned close and kissed her forehead. He was always so sensitive and attentive with aftercare, she couldn't help but smile despite the soreness and the weariness.

"Give me a moment to undress and I'll be there with you," he murmured.

Only then she noticed that he was still fully clothed, shoes included. "Mmh… 'k," she whispered. "Don't be long though."

"Just a minute. Are you sure you don't need anything?"

"We need to talk but… I'm too tired now. I need to process everything that… that happened." Her voice felt like she had swallowed sand and ground glass. Had she screamed so loud?

Meanwhile, Castle had stripped down to his boxers and was climbing in bed with her. The moment he was settled, Kate rolled over towards him and let him wrap his arm around her shoulders as she nestled her head over his.

"You're home now, we have time to talk. Sleep now, I wouldn't want a sudden sub drop to ruin the scene, even if you had to use your safeword."

"Using my safeword is not a problem. And to be completely honest, I think I needed this just as much as you did."

He shrugged his shoulders. "I could have waited."

"And I could not. It's been two long months even for me, you know?"

Castle kissed the crown of her head and she felt him smile against her hair. "Very well. Anyway, we need to rest and process what happened. We'll talk tomorrow, alright?"

She nodded. "Alright. 'night Castle. Love you."

"Love you too."


End file.
